constantly receive its rays; he would have his disciples' whole conduct based on faith.

On the strength of these words, we will consider some traits taken from the Holy Rule. Why must the monk obey his abbot? Simply because the abbot "holds the place of Christ" Abbas Christi agere vices creditur1. Why must the monks remain perfectly united to one another? Because "all are one in Christ 2. Why must guests, at whatever hour they arrive and in St. Benedict's time they were very numerous, nunquam desunt3, and arrived at unlooked for hours be received with eagerness and joy? Because it is Christ Who is received in them, because it is before Christ that we prostrate when we bow down before them: CHRISTUS in hospitibus ADORETUR qui et SUSCIPITUR..... omnes supervenientes hospites TAMQUAM CHRISTUS suscipiantur 4. Again why must the poor and strangers be more especially cared for? Because it is above all in these disinherited members that Christ presents Himself to our faith: Pauperum et peregrinorum maxime susceptionum cura sollicite exhibeatur: quia in ipsis MAGIS CHRISTUS suscipitur 5. And it is to be the same as regards the care given to the sick in the monastery. St. Benedict most urgently recommends that the sick are to lack nothing of the succour that their infirmity requires. This point appears astonishing since the monastic state is one of abnegation. And yet St. Benedict is very precise on this point: "Before all things and above all things, care is to be taken of the sick": Infirmorum cura ante omnia et super omnia adhibenda est. Why such insistence? Because here again faith sees Christ in His suffering members: "They are to be served as if they were Christ in person, for He hath said: I was sick and ye visited Me": Ut sicut revera Christo, ita eis serviatur, quia ipse dixit: Infirmus fui et visitastis me".

This faith, this supernatural point of view, is extended by the great Patriarch from persons to the actions of the life of the monk: whether the monk be in choir, or serve at table, or set out on a journey, everywhere St. Benedict would have him bathed in this light of faith. If the great Legislator carefully enumerates the natural qualities to be desired in the principal officials, he requires before all things that they should have hearts "fearing God; "he requires of the master of novices that he should especially "be skilled in gaining souls 9.

3.4. Ibid. ch. LIII. 7. Ibid. ch. xxxvI; cf. Matth.

1. Rule, ch. II, LXIII. — 2. Ibid. II; cf. Gal. III, 25. 5. Ibid. ch. LIII. 6. Ibid. ch. xxxvi.

XXV, 36. 8. Ibid. ch. XXXI; LIII. — 9. Ibid. ch. LVIII.

He envelops even the material things of the monastery with this light of faith. Because the monastery is " the house of God", domus Dei1, he would have us look upon the vessels and goods of the monastery as if they were the consecrated vessels of the altar": Omnia vasa monasterii cunctamque substantiam, ac si altaris vasa sacrata conspiciat2. The world will find such a recommendation very trifling, very simple and useless, but the holy Legislator judged quite otherwise. And this was because his faith was strong, and he understood that all things are only of any value in God's sight according to the measure of our faith 3.

IV.

Such then is the supernatural atmosphere wherein St. Benedict wishes the monk to live and breathe continually, quotidie; he wishes him, as St. Paul wishes the Christian, to live by faith": Justus ex fide vivit. The just man, (that is to say one who in Baptism has put on the new man created in justice) lives, in so far as he is just, by faith, by the light that the Sacrament of illumination brings to him. The more he lives by faith, the more he realises in himself the perfection of his divine adoption. Notice this expression carefully : EX fide. The exact meaning of this is that faith ought to be the root of all our actions, of all our life. There are souls who live with the faith CUM fide. They have faith, and one cannot deny that they practise it; but it is only on certain occasions, for example, in exercises of piety, Holy Mass, Holy Communion, the Divine Office, that they remember their faith to any purpose; it is impossible that faith should not come into play in these actions because, of their nature, these actions relate directly to God and, properly speaking, concern the supernatural economy.

But one would say that these souls restrict themselves to this; and that as soon as they leave these exercises, they enter into another sphere, and return to a merely natural life. If obedience then commands them something irksome or inconvenient, they murmur; if a brother-monk is in need of something, they pay no attention to it; are their susceptibilities touched, they are irritated. At these moments the outlook of their souls is not enlightened by 1. Rule, ch. xxxi. — 2. Ibid. 3. Faith, or rather what we would call the spirit of faith, the supernatural spirit, is manifested in the Rule in a thousand ways that are as touching and edifying for the believer as they are paradoxical and even laughable in the eyes of the world: the mihi fecistis of the Gospel is there carried to the supreme degree. " D. M. Festugière. The Catholic Liturgy. 4. Hebr. x, 38.

"

faith. They do not live by faith; theoretically, doubtless, they know that the Abbot represents Christ, that Christ is in each of their brethren, that we ought to forget ourselves in order to imitate Christ in His obedience. But, practically, these truths do not exist for them; these truths have no influence on their life; their activity does not spring from their faith; they make use of faith under certain circumstances, but, these circumstances having passed, they bid farewell, as it were, to their faith. Then it is the natural life that is uppermost, the natural spirit that becomes master. Certainly this is not to live by faith: ex fide vivere.

Now, such a life, so devoid of homogeneity, cannot be firm or stable; it is at the mercy of impressions, of every sally of temperament or mood, of the chances of health or temptation; it is a spiritual life that fluctuates and is tossed about by every wind that blows. It changes day by day, at the will of the capricious rudder that serves it as guide.

But when faith is living, strong, ardent, when we live by faith, that is to say when in everything we are actuated by the principles of faith, when faith is the root of all our actions, the inward principle of all our activity, then we become strong and steadfast in spite of difficulties within and without, in spite of obscurities, contradictions and temptations. Why so? Because, by faith, we judge, we estimate all things as God sees and estimates them: we participate in the Divine immutability and stability.

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Is not this what our Lord has said? "Everyone therefore that heareth these My words and doth them that is to live by faith shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew, and they beat upon this house. And it fell not. For Jesus Christ immediately adds, "it was founded on a rock 1.

This is truly what we experience when our faith is deep and intense. Faith causes us to live the supernatural life ; by it we are of God's family, we belong to that house of God, whereof Christ, as St. Paul says, is "the chief corner stone" Ipso summo angulari lapide Christo Jesu 2. By faith, we adhere to Christ, and the edifice of our spiritual life becomes thereby firm and stable. Christ makes us share in the stability of the divine rock against which even hell's fury cannot prevail: Portae inferi non praevalebunt. Thus divinely sustained, we are conquerors over the assaults and 1. Matth. vII, 25.· 2. Eph. II, 20. 3. Matth. xvi, 15.

temptations of the world and of the devil, the prince of this world: Haec est victoria quae vincit mundum, fides nostra1. The devil, and the world which the devil uses as an accomplice, offer violence to us or solicit us; by faith in the word of Jesus we come out victorious from these attacks.

"

You will have remarked that the devil always insinuates the contrary to what God affirms. Look at the sad experience that our first parents made of this. In what day soever thou shalt eat of [the forbidden fruit], thou shalt die the death 2; "such is the Divine word. The devil impudently declares the contrary: "You shall not die the death": Nequaquam morte morieminis. When we lend an ear to the devil, we put our trust in him, we have faith in him, and not in God. Now, the devil is the father of lies and the prince of darkness 4, while God is the Truth 5 " and "in Him is no darkness". If we always listen to God, we shall always be victorious. When our Lord was tempted, He repulsed temptation by placing the authority of God's Word in opposition to each solicitation of the Evil One. We ought to do the same and repulse hell's attacks by faith in Jesus' word. The devil says to us: How can Christ be present under the species of bread and wine ? Answer him: The Lord has said: This is My Body, this is my Blood". He is the Truth, that is enough for me. The devil tells us not to let an injury or an affront pass without retorting. Answer him: "Christ has said that all we do to the least of His brethren, we do to Himself, therefore any feeling of coldness voluntarily shown to our brethren or entertained towards them is shown to Jesus in person.

What is true of the devil is true of the world: it is by faith that we overcome it. When a man has a living faith in Christ, he fears neither difficulties nor opposition, nor the world's judgments because he knows that Christ abides in us by faith and because he relies on Him. Our Lord explicitly gave such assurances to St. Catherine when He gave her missions far and wide for the good of His Church, especially the mission of bring back the Sovereign Pontiff from Avignon to Rome. The Saint, in her weakness and humility, feared a mission in the course of which she foresaw insurmountable difficulties; but Christ said to her: Because thou art armed with the might of faith, thou wilt triumph happily over all adversaries 9. Again, later on, in her Dialogue,

1. Joan. v, 4.

Joan. xiv, 6.

2. Gen. II, 17.

3. Ibid. 4.

4. Cf. Eph. vI, 12. — 5.

6. Ibid. 1, 5. 7. Matth. xxvi, 26-28. 8. Ibid. xxv, 40.

9. Life by Bl. Raymund.

Catherine speaks of faith with holy enthusiasm: "In the light of faith" she says addressing the Eternal Father, “I gain that wisdom which is found in the wisdom of the Word, Thy Son; in the light of faith, I become stronger, more constant, more persevering. In the light of faith, I find the hope that Thou wilt not let me faint upon my way. It is also this light which shows me the path along which I must journey. Without this light, I should walk in darkness, and, therefore, I beseech Thee, Eternal Father, to enlighten me with the light of most holy faith 1. "

V.

Let us, too, beseech the Father and Christ Jesus, His Word, to grant us this light of faith. We have received the principle of it in Baptism; but we ought to guard and develop this divine germ. What is the co-operation that God expects of us in this matter?

Faith is a gift of God; Spirit of God: "Lord, Let us often say

He first of all expects us to pray. the spirit of faith comes from the increase our faith": Adauge nobis fidem2. to Christ Jesus, like the father of the dumb boy in the Gospel: "I do believe, Lord, help my unbelief": Adjuva incredulitatem meam3. It is truly God alone Who can, as the Efficient Cause, increase faith within us; our part is to merit this increase by our prayers and good works.

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This is to say that having obtained faith, it is our duty to exercise it. At Baptism, God gives us the habitus of faith; it is a force, a power; but this force must not remain inactive, this "habit" must not become ankylosed, so to speak, from want of exercise. This habitus ought to go on getting ever stronger by corresponding acts. We must not be of those souls in whom faith slumbers. Let us often renew our acts of faith, not only during our exercises of devotion, but furthermore, as the great Patriarch wishes, in the least details of our life. It is "every day ", quotidie, that we must, in accordance with his counsels, walk in this light.

And you will remark that with St. Benedict, faith is always practical; he never separates it from deeds; he wishes us to have our loins girded with faith, and the performance of good works": Succinctis fide vel observantia bonorum actuum lumbis nostris; he promises us joy and blessedness only on condition that we go forward in good works and